For the ninth year in a row, America’s Best Racing is challenging some of the brightest minds in horse betting to come up with their top three picks for key races every weekend leading up to the 2025 Triple Crown and then continuing through the 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The handicappers face off in what we like to call the “Big-Race Showdown.”

The players’ picks will be posted here and a running bankroll will be kept to track their success all year long. Bankrolls will be tabulated on the basis of $2 exacta and $2 trifecta box bets of each player’s top three selections. We will also be keeping track of which player correctly selects the most winners.

Your players for the 2025 Big Race Showdown season are Edison Hatter (In The Money Media Podcast Host & Track Announcer), Thomas Kearney (Track Announcer, Shenandoah Downs), Ashley Mailloux (freelance racing analyst), Jessica Paquette (Racecaller for Parx Racing, Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation), John Piassek (Assistant Racing Secretary, Yonkers Raceway),  Roberto Rodriguez (El Potro Roberto, DRF en Espanol), Mike Somich (VSiN Host; The Magic Mike Show – The Racing Dudes), Darwin Vizcaya (Handicapper and Host), Rowan Ward (Chartcaller at Hawthorne Race Track and a Freelance writer), and Alexa Zepp (Handicapper, DRF). 

This week’s Big-Race Showdown races are: the $1 million Hill ‘N’ Dale Metropolitan Handicap, a marquee one-mile dirt race; the $500,000 Jaipur Stakes, a race that draws elite turf sprinters; and the $2 million Belmont Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets, the final jewel of the Triple Crown. All three races will be held Saturday, June 7, at Saratoga Race Course.

FOX Sports takes over television coverage of the Triple Crown for the 157^th Belmont Stakes, and will broadcast racing from Saratoga from Wednesday, June 4, through Sunday, June 8. On Belmont day, June 7, FOX Sports will provide full-day coverage starting at 10:30 a.m. and ending at 8:15 p.m. ET. This includes five hours of coverage on FOX that will be broadcast nationwide – a pre-Belmont show from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m., and then a Belmont Stakes show from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. In addition, most of the day’s action will be shown on FS1 including a second show hosted by the “America’s Day at the Races” team airing during the same 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. time slot as the national show.